There is nothing to prevent Inglewood United from continuing to climb up the National Premier Leagues ladder and achieve a top four finish according to Michael Garcia. The rookie coach endured a real baptism of fire in his first month at the helm, with Inglewood registering just three draws from their opening five games.
The team have since found their rhythm, collecting five wins from six starts to place joint fifth – only two points behind third – at the season mid-point. Garcia has seen enough of his rivals, not to mention his own players, to know Inglewood are capable of a moving a few rungs higher over the second half of the winter.
“With the calibre of players that we’re got, I believe we are below where we should be,” Garcia said on this week’s edition of ‘Let’s Talk Football’. “By the same token, we are a new team. We’ve got new players, myself being new as well, and it might take that little bit longer to gel and get things right.”
“We believe we’re capable of being up there with the top few. That takes a lot of hard work in making sure you do the right things more often than not. We’ve got a pretty stable squad with good players in it, we’re enjoying training and are very much looking forward to the next few games.”
Those “next few games” will, ultimately, define Inglewood’s season. After this week’s break, they take on fourth-placed Cockburn City followed Perth SC, who currently occupy third, before squaring off with breakaway leaders Bayswater City. “We’ve going to come into a pretty tough run of games,” Garcia said understatedly.
“We’re pretty happy with how we are travelling at the moment (but) we don’t need to get too carried away with how we are going. These teams are all above us and that’s going to give us a good gauge of whether we are the real deal, or whether we’re not quite there yet.”
“We’ve got the makings of a good squad (but) we’ve got to keep grounded, know where we’re at and look to improve. We’re sitting mid-table and things can turn around the other way as well. If we approach the second half of the season switched on and keep showing the same behaviours week in-week out, things will go our way.”
